As those of you with no life (Like me!) might have surmised, Lrrr is back. He‘s the evil alien overlord who tried to destroy the world a few years back because he missed an episode of Ally McBeal, back in the days when people still gave a rat’s ass about that show. (Episode two, I think? Maybe early episode three. Definitely before Billy died, at any rate.)

Basically his wife is nagging him to get out there and conquer some worlds, so he attempts to take over earth by invading Comicon. Unfortunately he’s mistaken for a cosplayer in the ‘best costume’ show. He gets depressed, and bumps into our usual gang.

Lrrr: “You look familiar.”
Leela: “Yeah, you ate me once. I was in your mouth for over four minute.”
Lrrr: “Leela?”

Lrrr goes home, but the wife throws him out, so he shows up at planet express, marks his territory (With urine! Alien urine!) and crashes on the couch. Realizing he’s having a mid-life crisis, he buys a snazzy rocket car, has plastic surgery to enlarge his horns (get it? It’s dirty in an obvious sense. Also there’s a bonus testes gag* thrown in there) picks up an alien chick of his species at a bar, and heads home with her. Turns out she’s a transvestite - well, a transspeciesite, I guess - wearing a costume, which utterly traumatizes Lrrr, and he runs back to Leela crying.

Fry comes up with the surprisingly clever plan of hiring the severed head of Orson Wells (Maurice LaMarche gets work! Hooray!) do direct a video remake of “War of the Worlds.” The result is pretty much what you’d expect (Warning bad hilarious language):

(SEVERAL MINUTES PASS)

Oh, gosh, that bit at 1:18 is so filthy! It always cracks me up. Seriously, I’m just paralyzed with laughter when I hear it.

Ok, ok, I’m calming down now.

Anyway, so they fake an invasion of the earth, which they broadcast to Lrrr’s homeworld, where his wife is very turned on. She comes to earth, but Lrrr is afraid to tell her the truth, so earth is invaded for real, and subjugated.

Nixon: “Oh, fine. I resign. Again.”

So everyone toils in the mines and stuff, and Lrrr tries to tell the missus, but keeps losing his nerve. He goes crying to Leela, who bosses him around, which upsets his queen, who’s used to bossing him around, and they have a gun totin’ ritual to decide which one Lrrr rejects. Which resolves itself.

Also: Fry has a comic book for some reason.

The End

OBSERVATIONS

If there’s a bad Orson Wells joke, I haven’t heard it.

This was a pretty darn funny episode all the way through. I laughed out loud several/many times, though - as usual - not a single one involving Fry. I find I enjoy the more linear episodes….uhm…more. Something about a story with a set beginning, middle, and end, with only a vestigial subplot that causes them to do their best work on this show. (Conversely, Family Guy just flat out can’t do a straight-ahead narrative to save their lives)

The transspeciesite was a really good totally unexpected gag.

Is it just me, or are the Comicon gags *already* dated?

Not too much else to talk about in this episode. There’s no particular subtlety or subtext, just a lot of really funny stuff right on the surface. Generally I like to have some kind of trenchant insight for these things to give me a little arty credibility, but about as trenchant as I can be this time out is “It were really funny-like and-un I larfed a whole bunch-ed.”

Lrrr: “My wife has thrown me out, and conquering worlds has become a chore.”
Professor: “There, there, you’re just having a midlife crisis is all.”
Lrrr: [Pulls gun] “LRRR DEMANDS THE PLATITUDES OF POP-PSYCHOLOGICAL SAYINGS!”

Apparently next week is the “Season Finale.” Since this is the 21st century and coherent television schedules are oh-so-very last millennium, what this means is all a bit fuzzy. The episode order was Twenty-Six episodes. So is this a “Mid-season finale” like Syfy does, or are the 26 episodes a two-season order? I dunno. Either way, after next week we’re done until the December Xmas Special, and the next batch will air next year some time.

And that’s all I’ve got…

WILL CONSERVATIVES LIKE THIS EPISODE:

Maybe. Nothing in it as icky as last week, or as preachy as the robosexual episode, and it was pretty darn funny. Maybe. What the heck, give it a shot, and then call me names if you didn’t like it.

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